In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt kony said:
That could be quite true, any tpyical consumer display is
meant to be viewed straight-on in front and those with
reflective surface then also need the ambient lighting
adjusted more to minimize reflections.
Sometime look up what goes into a modern color CRT.
Especially to increase contrast and minimize reflection.
They *waste* over 3/4 of the brightness by adding black surrounds,
darkening the glass, and other tricks so that while actually reducing
brightness of the tube, the output *looks* brighter in comparison to
unwanted reflections. They make the dots smaller (dots, not pixels.
Pixels are made up of many dots) and the black area bigger; simply
because the phosphor, when unexcited, is white and reflects room
lighting. So, they then have to excite the phosphor that much more in
compensation. However, CRTs and their new electron guns are well up to
the job; so the customer never notices; simply seeing what *looks* like
a brighter picture, when it isn't. It just has more contrast to the
black background and darkened glass on the front of the tube.
Modern TV screens have the glass an actual dark-gray, for this reason:
Ambient light goes through the glass TWICE; and the dark gray of the
glass will dampen light going through it by more than half each
direction in some models. That reduces reflected glare by up to three
times. The light going out however, only gets reduced one time; so it
ends up *looking* twice as bright ... In comparison, of course to the
reflection. Look also at the surface of most TVs these days. They are
*not* the smooth "glassy* surface you might expect with what's known as
"specular" reflection. Instead they're textured to reduce reflections;
and might even have real anti-reflection coatings. (That last, I'm not
sure of. It's an expensive procedure for something mass-produced like
CRTs.)
CRTs are *amazing* things.
That's why it's taken so long to replace them. They just kept getting
BETTER all the time; and a stern-chase is always a long one.
Most of the early problems color CRTs had with bad purity, convergence,
alignment, and poor showing in bright rooms, have, while not exactly
been "solved"; certainly have so much improvement that nobody even
notices the small remaining defects they still have ... Until, of
course, they're compared side-by-side with a digital panel display; and
such things as misconvergence, minute variation in focus, and such
defects become obvious ... Though, to many people, only when viewed
under at least medium magnification.
LCD panels still have their own problems; as to Plasma Panels.
However, their improvement rate is *staggering*; while CRTs have pretty
much got about as much improvement in as they can. There's little left
in the technology that hasn't already been tried.
I don't really expect LCD panels or Plasma either to be the display of
the future. Some kind of FED display will *eventually* take over ...
once they get something that actually emits and does so reliably over
long periods of time. Of course, by then, perhaps another dark horse
will come along and sweep the field. OLEDs, perhaps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED
Whatever. In any case, digital and flat-panel displays are here to
stay; and I don't really expect the CRT to last much longer than another
decade, if that. The new displays are getting cheaper, faster, and
better each day; and some day will replace cathode-ray-tubes the way
semiconductor memory has long-since replaced core.
(THAT, BTW, took decades longer than some people predicted.)
Eventually however, everything will be digital; just like music went
from analog scratches in a plastic record to digital dimples in a
plastic CD.
. There is a lot of real estate on this thing.